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John Yarno

That was meant to be an example of how one suggestion can lead to another. There are classes and seminars built around problem solving. You should try finding one. It is quite fascinating how this actually works. I am not arguing about the suggestion, but rather trying to show how problem are solved, building one idea onto another. It really does work.

Well if a dye pack would not last long, and therefore not be worth the effort, how about releasing a beacon, which could be picked up by satellite (they already exist but can't transmit under water). There is a suggestion built upon another.

I am going to stick with any suggestion is better than none. While it may not prove practical, it usually gets other minds working and thinking if something that will work. Solutions must start somewhere.

We do have something that works under water. Each Flight Recorder has a little self contained pinger that starts pinging when it is immersed in water. The problem is that the ping is not very strong and deep water, combined with thermal layers can throw it off and reduce its range (which is not all that great anyway). That technology exists, and should be able to be scaled up.

GPS relies on very low power communication with space born transmitters. The signal can be blocked by tunnels and bridges. It would not take much water to block them completely. That being said, the planes communicate with satellites while airborne, just intermittently. Some of those signals can be turned off by the flight crew, and that needs to be stopped. Had we known where MH370 was, minutes before it hit the water, the search would have started in the right place and likely located the pingers on the 'black boxes'. As it was, they had to run the satellite orbits through a computer program to determine about where the were when they received a signal. What is needed is live communication with every flight so that we always know exaxtly where the plane is. I think the system is beginning to come on line now.

The dye pack would need to be released upon impact or rise to the surface before dismemberment. That setup would require a lot of engineering, testing and product development, all to get something that would be dispersed within hours. Remember however, any suggestion is better than none.

It would not take much to add a much more powerful underwater locator beacon, kept charged by the plane and armored to 20K+ depth. One with enough battery to last months, and a signal which could be picked up for many miles. Just scale up the beacons on the FDR's and attach them to the air-frame. True it would not track the flight, but the signal would be there and with a much larger radius then the little pingers on the FDR and CVR. No new tech, a small engineering program, and a very low cost retrofit to the aircraft.

Thank you for posting this information. I had not seen anything since the day of the crash. It looks like pilot error in that the heaters for the speed pilot tubes was turned off. Earlier reports sounded like perhaps a bomb.